Posts Tagged Enhanced oil recovery

According to an estimate from US DOE energy information administration, industrial sector alone account for slightly more than 25% of the total carbon dioxide emissions in the country. In an effort to reduce the carbon emissions from industrial units, DOE has allocated funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment act to fund more than 25 projects that can capture and store CO2 emissions from different industrial units like cement, paper mills, refineries, chemical plants and manufacturing facilities.

As a part of its $1.4 billion initiative, DOE selected 3 large scale carbon capture and storage projects located in Texas, Illinois and Louisiana for funding way back in 2009. The first phase of these projects involved an initial investment of $44 million towards research and development (R&D). On successful completion of phase I, the 3 projects have entered the phase II that involves design, construction and operation of the carbon capture units. The 3 projects that are part of this initiative are as follows:

Air Products and Chemicals had partnered with Denbury Onshore to capture and sequester 1 million tons of CO2 per year from its existing steam-methane reformers in Texas. The captured carbon dioxide will be transported via pipelines by Air Products to near by oil fields to enhance the recovery of the same.

Archer Daniels Midland Company is operating an ethanol manufacturing plant in Illinois. The proposed project aims to capture and sequester 1 million tons of CO2 from the plant and store it in a well characterized saline reservoir located about one mile from the plant. It is a joint venture of Archer Daniels, Schlumberger carbon services and the Illinois state geological survey.

Leucadia Energy and Denbury Onshore will capture carbon dioxide from a methanol plant to sequester it in an oilfield for enhanced oil recovery operations.

In addition to these 3 projects, DOE as early as September 2010 had identified another 22 projects with an objective of accelerating the R&D in carbon capture and storage to make this technology commercially viable. These projects with a funding of $575 million will complement the already existing projects funded through the recovery act.